I Was There!
My name is Felix Alvarez. In 1973 I'd just left University. I lived in the south London area and became involved in the early GLF group (which used to meet in a pub next to Oval tube). I was intimately involved with the squatting action which set up the Brixton Gay Community Centre and so, therefore, am well aware of most of the history of that group. I moved away from London to work abroad in 1978 and it was only many years later that I tried to trace many of the people I knew from that group and that era, only to discover, sadly, many had fallen victim to early HIV. Off the top of my head, some of the names of the people involved were as follows:
Gary Devere
Colm (surname I don't remember, but along with Gary, one of the two more forceful GLFers in the group)
Alistair Kerr (prime diamond fairy, lovely guy - also Aids victim)
Malcolm Greatbanks (GLF's candidate to Elections in Brixton around 1974, for whom I stood in as 'partner')
John Lloyd - I understand he is still around and living in the Railton Road 'commune', now Housing Association property
Julian Howes - managed to get in touch with him several years back and I understand deeply involved in Aids awareness work. Also, I understand, part of the Brixton Fairies theatre group.
The Community Centre was an important historical point for the gay movement of the early 70s: it was the first of its kind, for a start. The many activities it sparked (phone counselling, information and advice, gay disco, political awareness raising and action, a gay wrestlers' group, encounter groups etc) brought into many from the nascent gay movement who later went on to continue their work in other ambits (Friend, Icebreakers etc). Contact with the media was also something the group undertook, including a spot on London Weekend Television's "London Programme" around the time of the 1974(?) elections. Fringe film producers also used the members of the Community Centre for what I remember was to be a film entitled "Night Hawks". Don't know whatever happened to that project.
I vividly remember one night sitting in the Centre only to find, suddenly, the door slamming open and being put into a police van, along with others with practically no reason being given for our detention. We were held in the cells for a few hours and interrogated individually. I never did find out exactly what the reason for that treatment was, but we suspected the reason being that suspected paedophiles had started to attend the Community Centre, discussing issues around child/adult sexuality, the main thrust of which was an ideological position regarding respect for children's sexuality. That, ofcourse, was an area of much contention from a gay liberation point of view, and no consensus was uniformly held.
The participation of women in the centre was always low, though existent. This was, to some extent, undermined by the revelation that one of the women who presented herself as Lesbian was allegedly revealed as being a heterosexual 'fag hag'. This caused a level of unhappiness in a group which saw heterosexuals as attempting to undermine the sexuality of gay men (whom, allegedly, this person enjoyed 'seducing').
Towards the end of the Centre's short life, the cogency and solidarity of the group began to reveal itself in a series of ideological differences. This was, ofcourse, part of the natural development of the group as differences of view indicated the growing self-esteem of individuals who began to assert a plurality of ideological positions regarding their own sexuality.
One of the other problems that raised its head was the attempt by political ideologues external to the Centre attempting to 'infiltrate' the activism and energy of Centre members. One such group I remember well was the International Marxist Group (IMG) who advocated Marxist revolution and advocated an IMG-style approach to social campaigning.
I am sure that the more I think about that era the more will start to emerge from my unconscious. I am happy to enter into any further details with anyone interested in documenting this what I consider to have been important element in early 70s gay activism in order to address what is clearly a deficit in historical documentation (Bill Thorneycroft, by the way, was also a central figure in the life of the Gay Community Centre in Railton Road and it is only today when, prior to discovering this forum, I entered a few key searches that I discovered that Bill went on to co-authoring some interesting academic works on sexuality. I do not know if he still lives, but if so, Bill will similarly be a great source of reminiscences.)
I returned to my native country (Gibraltar) in 1997. Appalled at the situation of gay people in Gibraltar, I founded Gib Gay Rights (GGR) in 2000, which has over the last 7 years grown into Gibraltar's primary voice in gay and human rights. I can be contacted at gibgayrightsATyahoocouk. You can view our website at
http://equalityrightsggr.blogspot.com/ and I'd be delighted to hear from any of you.
Felix Alvarez
<I've taken out the dots and @ in your email or you'll get spammed to bits...Mrs M>
) Early 80s I think.
